Participant 14

“Participant 14” is a counselor for Wola Nani. She informs HIV-positive expectant mothers how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

I was diagnosed [in] 1990 in Cape Town. I found [out after] giving birth. [Then I] got sick with TB. By 1998, I treated it. So [during] all [those] years there was no medication. By 2003 I started the ARVs so that I [could] be healed. Because I was [at] Stage IV and my CD4 count was 175, I discover[ed] that I had pneumonia. By 2004, [I treated it.]. By 2005 I develop[ed] asthma, so I [have been] using [Asthavent] to make it better. I [joined] Wola Nani in 1998 at the support group whereby I get very strong and I [learned] that I . . . [am not] alone living positive. I started to do bead craft [in] that year. By 2000 I started to train the other[s in] doing craft[work]. By 2007 I started to work as a counselor at Wola Nani. [I have been conducting] the program of mother to child transmission. There I’m telling mothers to prevent their children [from becoming infected] by doing HIV test[s] when they are pregnant. When they [find] out that they [are] HIV positive there is a treatment that they get during [their] seventh month [of] pregnancy. They get dual therapy but if their CD4 count is less than 250 they go on ARVs to protect their babies. [I also teach them] about feeding options [that are] their choice: breast or formula feed[ing].

Beauty’s Vineyard

Originally, ten scholarly essays were published on this blog. These essays discussed how Christian theology can positively inform response to HIV/AIDS, as informed by theological aesthetics. In short, they were crafting a socially engaged theology of Beauty. Those essays have now been greatly expanded and published under the title, Beauty's Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2016).